If you're not, this will happen.
Bastard.
Men who murder children make me want to braid ropes.
And the people who feed the paranoia deserve the same fate.
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New digs for ponderings about Levantine Christianity.
The interior of Saint Paul Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Harissa, Lebanon. I have decided to set up a Substack exploring Eastern Christi...
The term "conspiracy theory" is ridiculous. What's your alternative? That there are no conspiracies ever? That conspiracies are like Bigfoot -- blurry photos, dubious footprints, and wild tales from unreliable newspapers of the late 1890's, and nothing more?
ReplyDeleteYeah, nothing will keep us safe like assuming that everyone always lays all his cards on the table. The September 11 attacks, for example, were not the result of a conspiracy -- it was all completely spontaneous! There was no planning in secret! Only a complete nutter believes in conspiracy theories, after all!
Your Russian or Chinese neighbor is very, very unlikely to be a spy -- but spies do exist. Your Muslim doctor is very, very unlikely to be a terrorist -- but terrorists do exist.
Most conspiracies are about money -- skimming off the top, fooling customers or investors, awarding contracts to family members, etc. -- or about covering up illicit sexual affairs, or about hiding incompetence. These are all over the place, but they're not at all glamorous. Some are about power; coups are a fact of history.
Only an idiot accepts the idea that Queen Elizabeth is a reptilian who eats human beings. Only an idiot casually dismisses the idea that Boeing hid problems with their 737 MAX. Not all conspiracy theories are alike.
Note also that the same kind of broad generalization is used to condemn religion: "If you're lucky, conspiracy theories will only kill your mind." Examples would include Jim Jones, ISIL, and Aum Shinrikyo.
ReplyDeleteOf course you and I have no interest in defending religion in general, but only the Catholic Faith. But if painting with a broad brush is fine, we will be tarred by that same brush.
As someone who is watching a dear relative swirl down the conspiracy theory drain, adopting every one that comes down the pike (most recently, John McCain being complicit in the Pentagon attack on 9/11), I am going to keep using the term.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are conspiracies--some are being prosecuted in my county court 12 miles away as I type this.
But an inability to distinguish between real conspiracies and the theory variety is one of the reasons why the latter flourish. Another reason they flourish is the corruption of institutions, but I will bracket that for the nonce.
Someone who analogizes a scumbag who murders his helpless toddlers because he thinks they have tainted DNA to religion in general is a poisonous dipshit unworthy of anything more than a resounding swat.
In short, I don't see the slippery slope here. Distinctions can and must be made.
I see that calling me a "poisonous dipshit" is counted as being "reasonably civil". So much the worse for you and our host. The respect is mutual, it need scarcely be added.
DeleteAnd yet you admit my point. If you want to call out kooky ideas, find a better term than "conspiracy theory", just like a better term should be used for Jim Jones than "religion". Sloppy language is a sign of sloppy thinking, and sloppy thinking is (well, par for the course on the Internet, but also) a precursor to sloppy ethics. Maybe FOR NOW you know that a man killing his kids is bad, but as long as you allow CNN et al. to frame the terms of the discussion, maybe that won't be for so much longer.
You've already adopted their form of "reasonable civility".
Since you never made any such analogy in your comments, Howard, how on earth could I have been referring to you? I am absolutely baffled by your response here. I was clearly referring to a religion hater, not you.
DeleteI have not wronged you here, nor to my knowledge anywhere else. What gives?
"But the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth, out of the same hole, sweet and bitter water? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear grapes; or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield sweet."
ReplyDeleteBut what did he know? He didn't even have a prestigious blogspot blog!
Yes, read by literal dozens per week, earning me the plaudits and cash commensurate.
DeleteWhich is to say: nothing whatsoever.